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@ericawordsmith – Here’s the link to his website. I’ve also watched some of his other videos… and really like what he has to say: https://warriorpoetsociety.us/

So! That video was really helpful for me… and I totally agree.

Right now I have one female student in class, who’s in her early forties very fit, into healthy eating, works out on a very regular basis. She’s been training for almost two years with us, though only the past five months of those years has the school been under me. Before then I as an Assistant Instructor.

Anyway… I’ve been working with her ever since she joined, but over the past five months several things have happened. I’ve grown… and I’ve gotten better at using my strength. Those are two huge factors that made me realize, that I can overpower her. I could physically overcome her and the skills that I have out match hers. What she has isn’t enough to take care of me. Now naturally, as he martial arts instructor with ten years of training behind me, that’s how it should be. But even at sixteen… I can settle down into a stance, where she cannot move me, and then I can move her right back. I can guarantee she has done exponentially more push-ups than I have, she can run longer than I can (running has been a huge thing for her… I can’t run very far… I haven’t worked on that), she very well could hold a plank longer than me… but with minimal training, I can do more pushups than she can, I can run faster, and can push harder. Have the physical male advantage.

So in training her, this has become apparent in the last five months… and it’s brought me to realize that I’m not training her against the odds. God created me to be of superior strength and battle prowess. He made them fighters, whether it’s to actually harm, or just to overcome physical strain. And I am fighting that, with someone not designed to naturally meet those standards.

This is something that had been on my mind, and then I saw the video, and it solidified for me… And I realized I need to be addressing it more directly.

And thus… It has been amazing to see what this man has to say. It verifies what I’ve been thinking, which is a huge comfort. It helps me come to terms about being politically incorrect. And it reminds me of my duties as the stronger person.

Now! Around to your questions of, what can you do? Because yes… it’s scary, and it’s freaky for me as a guy thinking about it for you. I don’t remember what things he mentioned in that video, but he mentioned certain statistics in another, as well as certain things you can do… so I’ll pair what I would say with what he would say.

First off you want to avoid vulnerable situations. I’m sure this is something that you already practice, but there are ways to further it. Carrying a flashlight everywhere you go isn’t a bad idea. This is not something I’ve practiced, but something I’ll certainly look into implementing. A knife isn’t a bad idea… keep in mind that a one inch blade on something like a carpenters razor can be a better weapon than something with a four in blade. The short blade in many ways is harder to take away, if used correctly.

If you have to do something… and you have a free hand, the farther your thumb goes into his eye the more likely you’ll be to hurt him badly. And when I say that, I mean for reals… like farther than we want to think about sending our thumb. At the same time getting the attention of someone’s help by making lots of noise.

If you’re at a store you can always ask someone to escort you out to your car. That’s what they’re there for. Oh! One thing I remember him mentioning in a video was the use of pepper spray. Here in East Texas I can buy that at Walmart.

If you do get out to a parking lot and realize it’s not safe feel free to walk back in and notify someone. Maybe even call the police (which might be your best bet… though first order of action is to remove immediate danger… even if that’s putting a grocery cart between yourself and the potential attacker).

So this is not an exhaustive list at all… it’s mainly there to give you a little spark of hope, that it’s not hopeless. And maybe it’ll help you get some ideas of how to better prepare. And I hope I have been helpful.

Now as a final comment… Honestly it is tough being the strongest. It takes responsibility, just to be the leader and best at anything. So yeah… I know how that feels. You may notice that even though guys will compete to be the strongest, they are always looking for the competition to beat. And I hope you find plenty of guys who will surround you with protection. 🙂 I don’t want to be one of the only three.